Author: Michael

A Square Between Two Spheres

We see at first only static and then flashes of color-red, green, blue. The background goes dark but the static remains. Lines roll up the screen. There is a black bar on the side and on the other side the same amount is missing.

Something appears on the television. An old lady sitting in a vibrating chair, her eyes are closed. She might as well be a vibrating corpse.

Darkness. Static. And then:

Strange geometry, a square between two spheres, appears on the screen. The lines roll and the screen flashes–red, green, blue. These colors cut through the image in waves. The square between two spheres begins to revolve.

The image fades and we are back to static.

Anachronistic Artefacts

Due to the extreme number of creatures passing back and forth between worlds, particularly after that which we call Event-X, it is virtually impossible to prevent the transit of anachronistic artefacts.

That said, as soon as one is discovered on [alt]Earth the Department attempt at least to record its existence and assess any dangers it may pose.

It is rarely necessary to remove anachronistic artefacts, particularly when they are from the past, and these assessments are usually brief.

Occasionally, however, such artefacts may cause localised disturbances–most frequently the Oz-Effect. These objects are confiscated out by the Department and stored or disposed of in line with procedures (see Storage of the Sacrosanct).

There is large black market demand for future-tech, with customers ranging from scientists to military forces and even large multinational corporations. A considerable amount of future-tech is likely already in use.

Territorial Disputes of Newlucia

Newlucia is the name given to a collection of Feudal States that claimed independence and thus gained a sort of autonomy, though tied through many bonds through their historical union.

Over time relations between each state broke down–at first, over matters of trade, particularly of pomegranites–used heavily in what were the Rituals of Newlucia.

These disagreements eventually came down to the tennant farmers who, rather than uniting against the Lords, instead turned against each other as they furiously defended their plots of land.

The escalation of these disputes resulted in a great many bloody battles and such was the profusion of bodies that a winding line of rich forest now separates each state as a border, the roots of the trees fed by the blood of the fallen.

We Can Know What He Cannot

Watch as the sand falls into that bottomless pit.
And the bottomless pit consuming everything by its darkness until there is nothing left.
There, in that infinite void, one must wait an eternity until.
The merest flicker like a burning ash on the wind.
And from that merest flicker comes everything.

A stranger walks through the desert, appearing as a shadow.

He was somebody once, but he doesn’t remember who. He dosen’t remember anything, really, except how to eat and shit. Oh, and one other thing.

There is a town on the horizon. Really nothing more than a few leaning buildings. There shouldn’t be a town all the way out here. There shouldn’t be anything here.

This is a place for the strange shadow alone.

Music reaches his ears as he draws closer, the notes disjointed and dismantled by the wind. He does not know the song. He looks at the city and wonders: should I walk around it? He doesn’t remember the last time he saw a person.

He doesn’t know if he is a person.

Is he a person?

No. Because we can know what he cannot.

The stranger is Lucifer, slain at his daughter’s hand, reduced at first to nothing, and then reborn into this strange existence.

He is a fallen angel and he is the rising light.

Yet he is pursued; not by man or beast but something different. The Great Dark—Satan—is forever at his heels. And so he moves through this desert. He moves anywhere except backwards. Anywhere except towards that darkness and his memories.

Lucifer turns towards the town.

A Trip Around the Coil

One of the largest structures in the Neverous Ether is believed to be The Coil, built by a group of future-humans who call themselves the Cerebellum.

The Coil is a long, twisting tunnel that that winds through the Ether itself and features rail-based transportation between worlds.

It is not known how the Cerebellum created the Coil, or how it works. It appears as nothing more than a thin filament in the Colourful Vastness.

Unholy Ziggurats

“Those unholy ziggurats built from the remains arose in great number as Nergal, the dog-faced poisoner, tore the world apart. And in each ziggurat of bone dark rituals were conducted.

Beings were tortured and flayed. Left to rot, their dismantled bodies became part of the ziggurat itself. Others were thrown into deep pits where they struggled and suffocated before their bones were used to replenish the structures; which grew ever taller in Nergal’s wake.“

– Chatravati’s Notes

Chaos Magic and Facial Reformation

Excessive use of Chaos magic is known to cause the morphology of the face to change… [such that] the Magician’s visage grows ever more hideous.

[It is] not surprising then that one of the most frequent uses of Chaos Magic is to alter ones own features so as not to attract unnecessary attention.

Indeed many Magicians use these methods in order to retain their youthful appearance well into their senior years.

Husband and Wife

“…nonetheless the violence of their passion was such that the very skies of the Molten Hells were rent with ice and fire.

For they took up residence in that terrible palance called Pandemonium that sits at the very edge of the Great Dark called Satan.

Yet Lilith grew homesick and frequently returned to her palace in the Frozen Hells. There she spent her time tending her garden, including the Vampire Tree that created that scourge and spread it like poison throughout worlds beyond.

Lucifer, however, spent an ever-increasing amount of time adrift in the Neverous Ether, seeking worlds in which to cause chaos and strife.”

– F.D. Truman, “Foundations”